


The Siren and the Pirate

by Serapheon



Category: None - Fandom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 01:08:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16465796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serapheon/pseuds/Serapheon





	1. Between the devil and the deep blue sea

It hadn't been the first storm Captain Asher had sailed in her time, it had just been the worst.  
At first, the waves had been nothing she'd normally pay attention to. Down below in her cabin, the rolling of the ship beneath her had been as natural as the movement of her own body.  
It wasn't until a glass on the sideboard fell onto the floor, cracking against the wood, that she looked up from the journal she'd been paging through.  
She could hear her crew yelling above, louder and more panicked than their usual rambunctious noises, and with a soft, exasperated sigh, dropped the tatty leather book in her hands onto the night stand and made her way to the cabin door.

_What the hell is going on?_

Up top, the deck was in a state of chaos, deck hands and crew members running back and forth, yelling at each other. Rain and wind lashed them, making the floor a slippery, treacherous surface.  
_Strange, the sky had been clear when we'd set out this morn._  
Reaching out, she caught the arm of Silver, her boatswain, pulling her around to face her.  
"What's happened?" She disliked the urgency in her voice, brought on by the clear panic running through her crew.  
"Captain! We were sailing past the Island Capri like you told us to, it was going to be easy, not even a hard days sail at most-"  
"Aye, i know this, so why is everyone runnin' like their arses are on fire?"  
"Yin was leaning overboard, and I think she said that the Island wasn't a pretty sight. Next thing we knew, the waves had lurched up and crashed against the ship, and she wen't over, Captain! Mathias has been in the crow's nest trying to spot her but we don't know where she's gone..."

Asher pushed forward, her calm demeanor belying the cold panic that had clutched at her heart.  
"Alright mates, listen up."  
Her voice, calm and authoritive, rose above the noises of the crew as she made her way to the wheel. They all turned, waiting for her command, her next word.  
"Seems our lovely First Mate has decided to take abit of a dip. Not the best time to go swimming but she's always been an impatient one. I want all you bilgerats at the sides, scouring the sea like it's about to reveal gold. Mathias, get your arse back in that crow's ne-"  
A wave, bigger and fiercer than the last, crashed against the side of the ship and everyone lurched. Asher, usually so surefooted, found herself stumbling away from the wheel, her boots slipping from under her as another wave hit, and then another. Her back hit the railing and for a second, she caught eye with Mathias, hanging off the rigging, mouth agape.

And then, she was falling. 

There was a brief moment, where her sudden view change didn't make sense. It was as though the world had slowed down, there was no sound, no rain, nothing but the sudden and uncomfortable realisation that she was no longer aboard her ship.  
And then the cold hit as water enveloped her, obscuring her view of the ship, and her from her crew mates.  
She twisted, sinking quickly. A wave caught her, knocking her further into the draft her own damn ship was making. If she didn't find the surface, she'd be another rat for Davey Jones' locker, for sure.  
Another wave, another lurch, and the back of her head found the underside of her ship. She gasped in pain and surprise, water flooding into her now open mouth, her vision darkening.  
The last thing she heard before everything went black, she couldn't comprehend at the time, in the situation she was in;

_"She's with us, now."_


	2. You've got the Devil to pay

Wet.   
Everything was bloody _wet._ Her hair, her clothes, the gunpowder for her pistol, _everything._  
Asher brushed her fringe back, running her hand through her hair and wincing at the blood that came away on her fingertips.  
Somewhere between the abrupt fall over the side of her and ship and her washing up on shore, she'd lost her bandana, and one of the braces in her hair had come loose.  
But, she was alive...somehow.  
She cursed, kicking almost childishly at wet sand that clung to the leather of her boots, before straightening up with a groan and a sigh.  
Cant be helped.

She turned, scanning the expanse of calm blue before her, a stark difference to the tumultuous waves that had been crashing against her ship, not so long ago.

_Speaking of...._

A speck of black in the distance allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief. The crew would come for her, in due time. Once they realised that she was no longer in the waters, the only logical place to check would be the Islands themselves they'd been trying to sail past.

This must be where Yin ended up.

She looked around, taking in her surroundings and trying to catch her bearings.   
Just beyond the small beach lay a thick forest of trees, and leading up to them, as clear as the water behind her, was a series of boot prints.  
"I knew it. Where is she going? She knows to stay in sight of the ship."  
Thoughts of her own head injury brought a brief flurry of worry to mind that Yin was injured from her fall into the water, and she hurried to follow the prints, stripping off her jacket, soaked heavy with water, as she did so. She could pick it up on her way back, once the sun had helped dry it some.  
For a brief second, she contemplated doing the same for her shirt, with the way it clung heavy to her skin, but there was something mildly _off putting_ about wandering an unknown Island in a chest wrap, leggings and boots.  
 _I just wish i had my bloody bandana._  
Can't be helped.

As she entered the abrupt, cool shade of the forest, she continued to scan for any signs of someone passing through. No footsteps on the forest floor, but there were plenty of broken and disturbed branches. There was a strange silence to the forest, as though all the animals that resided there - if there were any at all - were holding their breath at this sudden intrusion of their home.  
A wave of uneasiness washed over her and one hand went almost instinctively to the hilt of her cutlass, the heavyness a reassuring pressure in her palm. Forests simply weren't meant to be _silent_ like this, but, if there was one thing anyone who met Captain Asher of the Nereid could say with the utmost confidence, was that she was no coward,  
(Well, that, and she was an insatiable flirt, but that was neither here nor there). So, despite the prickle of weariness in her breast, she continued on.

Branches hanging low tugged at her hair and snagged at her shirt, and her language grew more and more colourful as she pressed on, wondering not for the first time where the hell Yin was going.  
Finally, after what seemed an age of stumbing through such densely packed trees, the forest began to widen out, until she found herself walking beside clear blue pools of water, each with their own brightly coloured fish swimming lazily beneath the surface.

"What is this place?"  
The sound of her own voice startled her, and she barked out a short laugh. The unease from the silent forest seemed so silly now as she found herself in such tranquil surroundings.  
Her attention, momentarily snatched from her by the beauty of the place, drifted almost lazily to a distance, soft sound, pleasing to the ear.  
 _Is that...Singing?_  
She turned, hand at the hilt of her sword once more, and began to slowly, cautiously, make her way in the direction of the strange noise that now filled the air. A tune that slid down your spine, caressing the skin with it's melody. She'd never heard anything like it before.  
She knew to be cautious, despite her curiosity. Every sailor worth their salt knew the tales of this particular Island, the very reason that she'd instructed her crew to sail straight past. She'd seen the wreckages of ships who's Captains hadn't heeded the warning told in every tavern, smashed against the rocks and half sunken into the depths below.  
And yet...  
Her feet continued to move in the direction of the singing, as though they'd taken on a mind of their own.  
Past the smaller pools of water, along the narrow path, she found herself on the very edge of a large pool, the water sparkling beneath the sun. The song seemed to surround her, floating from all directions, from inside her very head.   
_Was, was it coming from the pool?_  
Asher leaned forward to stare into the water before her, caution thrown to the wind on wings of curiosity.  
There, staring back, was a white scaled fish, with familiar Golden eyes and, most bizarrely for a fish, _horns._  
"Y-Yin?!"


End file.
